Note 142 — Chapter V · Religious and Social Aspects of Slavery

Gillet, E. H., History of Presbyterian Church in United States of America, I, 201. These synods said:

“We do highly approve of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that prevail in America, and of the interest which many of the states have taken in promoting the abolition of slavery. Yet, inasmuch as men, introduced from a servile state to a participation of all the privileges of civil society, without a proper education, and without previous habits of industry, may be, in some respects, dangerous to the community; therefore, they earnestly recommend it to all the members belonging to their communion to give those persons, who are at present held in servitude, such good education as may prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom. And they moreover recommend that masters, whenever they find servants disposed to make a proper improvement of that privilege, would give them some share of property to begin with, or grant them sufficient time and sufficient means of procuring, by industry, their own liberty; and at a moderate rate, that they may thereby be brought into society with those habits of industry that may render them useful citizens; and, finally, they recommend it to all the people under their care, to use the most prudent measures consistent with the interest and the state of civil society in the parts where they live, to procure eventually the final abolition of slavery in America.”